Homes That Are a Little, uh, Isolated
By: Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager | August 7, 2007
We sometimes hear about odd, quirky stories dealing with homeowners who refuse to move from their homes due to eminent domain unless their terms are met. We cheer and nod in appreciation — who doesn’t love the little guy standing up to the big guy?
Inevitably, they and their homes end up marooned, surrounded by the development that eventually does get built. We’ve researched and compiled details on some of these stories below. We discovered that some of the stories are real and some are urban legend.
Story #1: “The Nail House“
Wu Ping, a businesswoman in Chongqing, China, went toe-to-toe with a developer, refusing to move unless she was given a home of comparable size. The developer refused, wanting to give her a small sum of money instead. The stalemate lasted for three years, culminating in a showdown during March 2007, in which the developer cleared all the land around this woman’s house, stranding her home high, high above. See more incredible photos.
What We Found: According to New Jersey Eminent Domain Law’s blog, the Nail House was demolished on April 2, 2007. But, Wu was given a ground-floor apartment with space to open up a restaurant. Details are sketchy since most articles and blog posts from China seem to have “dried up” around the end of March (”here today, censored tomorrow”). Since the settlement, Wu has “disappeared from the public eye.” Additional reading: Interview with Mrs. Wu Ping , aka “The Nail House Lady.”
Story #2: “Island Farm in Middle of England’s M62 Highway”
(Photo courtesy Google Sightseeing)
In the 1960s, when Highway M62 was being built in northern England to connect the cities of Liverpool and Hull (and others in between), the developers came across a stubborn sheepfarmer who refused to sell his property. So, they built the highway around his farm, isolating him, his sheep, and farm. (No sheep jokes, OK?)
What We Found: Yes, the highway does split around this farm, but the sheepfarmer’s stubborness is urban legend. Since this highway goes through the Pennines mountain range, the engineers found it was difficult to build the east and west roads together due to geological and economical issues. So, it was split apart, with the farm sitting in the middle.
Story #3: House on Hospital Grounds in Bismarck, ND
Over the years, the St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, ND, kept purchasing the land around it to expand its hospital. According to a post in Boing Boing, one man refused to move, no matter what offer was made. Eventually, the hospital kept building around him, surrounding his house with hospital parking lots and buildings. He essentially became a resident within the hospital grounds.
What We Found: We went right to the source, contacting St. Alexius Hospital’s PR department. They never called back. Next stop: The good ‘ol Bismarck Tribune’s city desk where I spoke with Steve Wallick, the city editor. Steve has worked at the paper for 32 years and if anyone knows quirks of a city, this guy MUST know — he holds the history of Bismarck in his brain. Unfortunately, mine was just another weird phone call among the hundreds that city desk editors handle everyday. Steven did know about the house and verified that it is a private residence that is surrounded by the hospital’s buildings and parking lots, but he was not at all interested in offering any exciting anecdotes. Nothing about the homeowner standing in the way of a wrecking ball. Nothing about the homeowner laying down in front of a bulldozer. Nothing to make this post more interesting. But, I did get to hear that great North Dakota dialect.
Story #4: Skinny House
(Photo courtesy Boston.com)
Legend has it that the home was built to obscure a neighboring house’s view. Yeah, a good ‘ol neighborhood spat, 1890’s-style.
What We Found: This house still exists and is part of our Famous Home series and Boston.com’s “Must Sees Around Town. Located in Boston’s North End, the home is only 10 feet wide, forcing the owners to place the front door in the side alley. The Skinny House is now surrounded by much bigger buildings, turning the tables on the Skinny House’s alleged existence to block their neighbors’ views.
Know of more isolated home stories? Let us know and we’ll try to research their history.
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- Categories: Real Estate, Real Estate Oddities, Zillow
Comments
12 Comments so far
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John N on August 7, 2007 11:04 pm
lol
The Nail House ..isn’t that an old story already? read about it on Individual business daily a year or two ago …
but it’s always nice to hear indeed the small people standing up to the big corporate people
Got my vote on that on
Bay Area Real Estate
Diane Tuman on August 8, 2007 2:19 pm
Hey John: Yeah, I wasn’t trying to break news here — just trying to compile some odd, isolated homes for some light-hearted reading. Do you know of any weird homes like this in the Bay area? (BTW, thanks for visiting us!)
Wylie on August 8, 2007 5:38 pm
Nice post! My thoughts are not a perfect fit- not light hearted anyway- but there were plenty of single ‘isolated’ homes in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans when I was there in June.
People who have rebuilt or refuse to tear down, surrounded by empty lots…
I actually just posted on my blog about where I was and linked to zillow and included some images from your site.
http://wyliemoney.blogspot.com/2007/08/keeping-eye-on-musicians-village-in-new.html
Any idea when you will get new images from New Orleans?
Keep up the good work!
John on August 9, 2007 7:39 am
Hi Diane.Great Post!Yes,We need more.I’ve posted a link to your post in my google docs,my readers can access you va the sidebar on my blog internal link (Eminent Domain … Updates & Backdates)Check it out.
John N on August 9, 2007 10:37 am
Hi Diane ,
I think I do …. been years since i was around that area though. let me see if i can find it and maybe take a few clicks at that weird house.
David G from Zillow.com on August 9, 2007 4:08 pm
Wylie -
According to GlobeExplorer, who provides our aerial imagery, the NOLA images were shot in October 2004. I don’t know what their schedule is for updating that coverage but also hope that they do an update sometime soon. Globexplorer’s coverage statistics are listed here;
http://www.globexplorer.com/download/GX-Top-150-MSA-Coverage-List.pdf
Wylie on August 10, 2007 11:04 am
Thanks David!
I checked out globexplorer’s site and found more recent images there. Maybe they do not have their recent images in the format they are selling to you?
Here is a link to the images of NOLA from this Feb.
http://www.globexplorer.com/ImageAtlas/view.do?group=ImageAtlas&lat=39.5276&lon=-97.142&zoom_level=1
Compare them to the images on my site and you can see the homes that have been built on the field’s we were working in!
http://wyliemoney.blogspot.com/2007/08/keeping-eye-on-musicians-village-in-new.html
I can’t imagine updating images will be easy for zillow whenever it does happen since plot lines will have changed.
Thanks again!
Wylie
Wylie on August 10, 2007 11:14 am
My link to the globexplorer site has the coordinates I had zoomed into, but the link itself does not take you there directly.
If you zoom in on New Orleans, you will see the older images from high up, but as you get to the street level, they have pictures from 2007.
The address I am looking at is the corner of N Roman St. and Bartholomew St. I will post the more recent images on my blog soon as well.
-Wylie
Staten Island Real Estate broker on August 10, 2007 10:05 pm
Here is a link to a story about a building in Brooklyn, that wouldn’t “sell out”:
http://curbed.com/archives/2007/07/23/hold_out_no_more_bayard_streets_beauty_addiction_ods.php
The Digerati Life on September 17, 2007 9:48 pm
wow, great stuff. Highly interesting. I’m gonna have to track back to this info.
86 Years Old and She Ain’t Movin’ - Zillow Blog - Real Estate News and Analysis on October 2, 2007 11:51 am
[...] Edith Macefield to the list of people who have refused to move from their homes to make way for development. In an article in today’s Seattle PI by Kathy [...]
Tony on April 8, 2008 12:57 pm
Isn’t there a house that the Penthouse casino in Atlantic City built around?